“Behind every great man there’s a great woman” is a familiar expression, but what about great men behind great women? This may sound silly, but it seems to be the case for Bette Midler, whose marriage to Martin von Haselberg didn’t kill her career – it helped her talent thrive.

A guide to a successful marriage, Bette-Midler style

In 1984, Bette Midler was an accomplished singer and actress when she met her almost-colleague, Martin von Haselberg, who was probably less well-known than her. The two immediately felt that they belonged together and tied the knot about six weeks after their first meeting. Their daughter, actress Sophie von Haselberg, arrived on November 14, 1986.Read More

In photographs and in the cartoon logo that shows their heads back to back, with concave faces like twin images of men on the moon or safecrackers with three-day stubble on their stalk-like chins, it will always be Harry on the left. It will always be Harry on the right as well.

The Kipper Kids, the joint creation of Martin von Haselberg and Brian Routh, took their name from a British schoolboy chum who had a face like a fish. For a while, they were Harry and Alf, but they couldn’t remember who was who. Or whom was who. So they both became Harry.

The Kipper Kids have had big reputations in performance art circles, particularly in Europe, for the bulk of the past 20 years. You may have seen them on HBO’s “Mondo Beyondo.” In a scene in a men’s room involving food, they performed the near-impossible in outflanking Bette Midler’s outrageousness and lending the program an unmistakable comic lift. Industry insiders will get a look at the two and only Tuesday night at the Hollywood Masonic Lodge, where they’ll show their latest short movie, “K.O. Kippers.”

(Von Haselberg, who has been a successful commodities dealer in his time, is married to Midler. He was executive producer for “Mondo Beyondo”).

It’s hard to determine what the industry types will make of them Tuesday. (Creative Artists has put them under contract.) Even though the Kipper Kids are a great deal less esoteric than they once were, they still fall well within the classification of the avant-garde. They now use recognizable speech where once they communicated in a series of growls and raspberries whose flatulent variations, which still erupt in their exchanges, would be the envy of a symphonic brass player.

The black-and-white movie which debuts on Cinemax Aug. 13 and repeats Aug. 15, 17, 19, 21 and 23, is short and relatively slight. In it, the Kids have been contractually locked into a prizefight in some sleazy Mexican tank town by a crooked manager (Joe Spinell, oozing mendacity and corruption from every oily pore) who keeps them in a chicken coop (they work out on plucked dead chickens as light punching bags). The manager has two sleek hookers who accompany him everywhere. The Kids have been allotted two merry but overweight and distinctly plain peasant women. (The Kids do their road work carrying the women on their backs.)

The Kids do everything in tandem–they are the closest team since Laurel & Hardy, with whom they bear a couple of similarities. In “K.O. Kippers,” the assumption is that they’re to fight another two-man team, but when the opponents become violently ill after having consumed a bottle of their sponsor’s soft drink product (a rank concoction called “Fizzo” that makes battery acid seem comparatively benign), they’re forced to fight each other, which they promised Mum they’d never do.

By any modern comedy standard, their style is eccentric. In “Mondo Beyondo,” we saw an energy and sharp-featured harlequin look that recalled the commedia dell’arte. But they prefer chaos to linear plot situations–they’re almost always involved in some kind of physical mess, whether it’s food or garbage (in one of “K.O. Kippers’ ” scenes, they’re almost completely obscured in a cloud of chicken feathers). They’re both tall and big-boned. They look like stocky British louts of yore hired by the gentry to cudgel errant country taxpayers but who never could hurt anyone. They have the emotional privacy of genuine lunatics, and a corresponding innocence.

“They love their mum,” said Harry (Routh) drolly, in a soft northern British accent and tone that almost eerily evokes Stan Laurel. He grinned at his partner beside him in the restaurant with the shared prognathous-jawed gesture that confers instant goofiness on the face of the grin’s bearer. It was also a very sly look. Much of Harry’s humor is so subtle that it never gets past the corner of your eye. Of course, there is no mum.

“We have just begun to explore integrating the Kipper Kids in a new context,” Von Haselberg said. “We might one day do films that are more than just comic entertainment. Like our old performances, we want to be painfully funny, with an underlying disturbing element.”

That’s the way they speak. Between the two of them, they can dish it out any way you want to take it. Routh is softly laconic; Von Haselberg is capable of the abstract discourse that reads well in art magazines. It’s a treat to hear them, largely because you never really know what they’re going to do next (they often slip in and out of character) and because so much of their gestures and sounds has evolved through a private (and grossly funny) language. Together they send out a Kirlian penumbra of true strangeness.

Harry and Harry Kipper, performance artists, stress the visual, the visceral, and the violent aspects of social rituals, with a feeling for the relationship between ordered social rituals and conventions and the festering violence that lies beneath the facade of mannered behavior. From silly but seriously performed rituals, the work progresses to ever more extreme actions.
Harry and Harry Kipper are portrayed by Brian Routh and Martin von Haselberg. Both artists attended E. 15 Drama School in London, and began performing together in 1971.

World Film Geek
Posted on December 7, 2017
by worldfilmgeek
The Spirit Of 76

Get ready for a wild time travel ride into the decadent 70’s in this underrated comedy from some second generation filmmakers.

A magnetic storm has destroyed all points of history in the year 2176. The Ministry of Knowledge have revived the last person who knows the origins of United States history. Just before the man dies, the Ministry has learned about the birth of the United States on July 4, 1776. Determined to bring America back to what it was, the Ministry hires Heinz-57 and Chanel-6 to find Adam-11, who has developed a time machine so he can live his dream of going to “Ikiki” Beach. At first, Adam is not on par with the duo until they promise him the ingredient he needs to power up the machine, tetrahydrozaline.

As the trio begin their time travel adventure, they think they have arrived in the year 1776. However, a glitch in the circuit has revealed that they have actually arrived on the bicentennial on July 4, 1976. The two instantly befriend two local boys, Steve and Tommy while Rodney Snodgrass, an annoying kid, notices the machine and plans to use it for the science fair. When Rodney’s attempt destroyed the engine needed for the machine, the trio along with Steve and Tommy, must evade the FBI and find a way to create a new engine before they are stuck in the 70’s.

It’s time for a nostalgic trip as a generation of fans will get their kicks of 1970’s insanity. The film was directed by Lucas Reiner, the son of Carl Reiner and brother of Rob Reiner. Carl and Rob make cameos in the film with the former playing the last man who teaches the Ministry of Knowledge about the birth of the nation while Rob plays a motivational speaker. Lucas co-wrote the film with Roman Coppola, the son of the legendary Francis Ford Coppola and sister/filmmaker Sofia Coppola designed the film’s retro costumes, which look great in the film.

The cast is led by the late David Cassidy, who sports a style similar to his iconic Keith Partridge character, in the role of time traveler Adam-11. Olivia D’Abo and Geoff Hoyle provide both the eye candy and comic relief respectively as Chanel-6 and Heinz-57, Adam’s cohorts on this trip. The film also has some famous musicians from the group Devo playing the Ministry of Knowledge and the force behind indie rock band Redd Kross, Jeff and Steve McDonald, in the pivotal roles of Chris and Tommy, the two best buds who help the time travelers on their quest to return home. In a near end-credit scene, Chris and Tommy are showing Adam what foods are popular during that time that ends as a blooper for Cassidy.

The 70’s are truly alive in the film with the numerous fads and cameos. Look out for Tommy Chong playing (what else?) a stoner in a smoke shop with his wife Shelby playing the proprietor of the shop. Mission: Impossible’s Barbara Bain plays a woman at the motivational speaker’s conference who plays a pivotal role for the trio getting some rare items for their history trip. She is also the mother of the film’s producer Susie Landau. Leif Garrett, the 70’s teen idol, plays “Eddie Trojan”, a self-proclaimed disco king who has eyes for Chanel-6 and teaches her how to dance. Even the legendary Iron Eyes Cody, known for his famous commercial where he is seen crying, appears as himself giving Adam some pristine advice. The Kipper Kids themselves, Martin Von Haselberg and Brian Routh, play FBI agents who mistake the time travelers for aliens.

While the film was made and released in 1990, in an age where nostalgia is in today, this is definitely one film to enjoy with its 70’s fads and appearances. Better yet, take this film and make it a double feature with the 1993 film Dazed and Confused as this is a underrated 70’s-set/time travel comedy.

It is a word so heinousÂ to Martin von Haselberg that his cultured, British art schoolâ€“inflected voice drops half an octave when he finally spits it out: “Neutral? One thing I hate is neutral.”

Fortunately, there is little danger that such an adjective will ever be used to describe the poolhouse he created from the ground up on his 110-acre estate, on the outskirts of genteel Millbrook, New York, 90 minutes north of Manhattan. The 1,200-square-foot building has more conceptual twists than a Luis BuÃ±uel film, and it is just as gobsmacking. “I never want to be classified or tied to a particular reality,” says von Haselberg, a former performance artist who, in the heyday of punk, was half of an iconic duo called the Kipper Kids, which influenced everyone from the Blue Man Group to Karen Finley.Read More

In the land of 10-minute marriages, there have been some successful and long term unions along the way. It’s relatively hard to live happily ever after in tinsel town, but a few have managed to beat the odds. Let’s take a look at some happily married Hollywood marriages that have endured beyond the quarter-century mark.

One of the rock-steadiest couples around is Jay Leno and his wife of 31 years, Mavis. They met in 1976 when she was in the audience at one of his stand-up gigs. Legend has it that after Leno finished his set, he dashed over to the ladies room where he anticipated Mavis would be waiting in line. Bingo. Leno spoke to PopEater about the secrets to his happy marriage and put it in poignant terms.

“I enjoy being in the room with my wife,” he tells us. “When she’s reading and I’m fixing the car, just knowing that she’s right over there, I like that, I like that feeling, I’m comfortable with that. I know so many men and women, you know, they take the long way home subconsciously, they stop off and they have a drink. Do you know what that means? It means you don’t want to go home. I like to go home, and when you don’t want to go home, that’s a bad sign. That’s really the trick.”

MORE SOLID COUPLES

Martin Sheen and Janet Templeton (1961) 50 Years
Martin Sheen has seen trouble in paradise brewing for his son Charlie for a while now and has to deal with his coping skills, but his wife of nearly 50 years has stood by his side through thick and thin. No marriage stands the course of time without a few bumps in the road. (Sheen suffered a heart attack when he was 39 and almost died, and suffered through his own bouts of alcohol abuse as a young man that he got through when he rejoined his faith.). Sheen and his wife Janet should write a “marriage for dummies” book to help the rest of us learn how to ride out the rough spots unscathed. On December 23, they will celebrate their Golden Anniversary — their 50th. Any couple who celebrates that milestone deserves a gold medal. Congratulations, Martin and Janet!

Ron and Cheryl Howard (1975) 36 Years
Director Ron Howard has grown up before our very eyes, first as the adorable Opie on ‘The Andy Griffith Show,’ and then as teenager Richie Cunningham on ‘Happy Days.’ Howard married his high school sweetheart Cheryl Alley when he was only 21. They have three daughters (actress Bryce Dallas, 29; twins Jocelyn Carlyle and Paige Carlyle, 25; and son Reed Cross, 23). Great trivia: His daughters’ middle names indicate where they were conceived (Dallas, Texas and the Hotel Carlyle in New York City). Howard said that his son Reed Cross was named after a London street because “Volvo isn’t a very good middle name.” Can you say “sense of humor” boys and girls?

Dan Aykroyd and Donna Dixon (1983) 28 Years
Dan Akyroyd, who was one of the original cast members of ‘Saturday Night Live,’ has not let success go to his head. He has managed to keep the home fires burning with his second wife, actress Donna Dixon. He married the beautiful actress (with whom he starred in movies ‘Doctor Detroit,’ ‘Spies Like Us’ and ‘The Couch Trip’) after his first marriage to Maureen Lewis ended in divorce in 1974. They have welcomed three daughters along the way. Strange bedfellows obviously haven’t been a problem in their marriage. So, Donna, if you have ” an invisible man sleeping in your bed, who you gonna call?” (Ghostbusters!)

Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman (1982) 29 Years
Danny DeVito (aka Louie De Palma on ‘Taxi’) and Rhea Perlman (aka Carla Tortelli on ‘Cheers’) met while filming the sitcom ‘Taxi’ in 1978.’ They married on January 28, 1982 and have had three children, a son and two daughters. When someone once asked DeVito what’s the secret to their successful marriage, he reportedly replied, “Love. Love. I mean, really. You know what? Who knows. The secret to success is to try to never figure that out.”

Mickey Rooney and Jan (1978) 33 Years
It’s hard to believe Mickey Rooney turns 91 in September. This Hollywood legend will celebrate 33 years of marriage this year with his eighth wife, Jan Chamberlin. Rooney, whose first marriage to the voluptuous actress Ava Gardner ended after only a year, once joked (after several failed marriages) that his marriage contract reads: ‘To Whom it May Concern.’

Talk about having a swollen head. Artist Martin von Haselberg, who splits his time between New York and Los Angeles, has crowded one of the New Orleans Museum of Art‘s upstairs galleries with hundreds of photos of himself.

But, to be honest, they’re not the most flattering shots.

Von Haselberg apparently prefers to see the grotesque in himself. He uses a computer to twist, stretch and squeeze his poor head like Silly Putty. If that weren’t enough, he prints his distorted self-portraits on large sheets of crinkly paper that he uses to make weird balloons and pillows. One or two are free to languidly stagger the gallery floor as if they had spent a bit too long on Bourbon Street. And to lend everything a dignified air, Von Haselberg titled the exhibit “Floatulents.”

OK, there’s another point of interest here. Nobody likes to stand out just because he is the husband of a celebrity, but I have to tell you anyway. Von Haselberg is married to Bette Midler.

Beat that.

The exhibit of strange self-portrait paper balloons continues through Sept. 6 at the New Orleans Museum of Art, 1 Collins Diboll Circle, City Park. Museum hours are Wednesday from noon to 8 p.m.; and Thursday-Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Free.

December 9, 2007
New York Times
The Getty Gets Serious About Video
By CAROL KINO

EARLY this year the artist Martin von Haselberg, better known as one-half of the Kipper Kids performance duo, made a pilgrimage to the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles to view a video he hadnâ€™t seen since he created it in 1976. The institute had just rediscovered it in the Long Beach Museum of Art video archives, a trove of early work that the institute acquired in December 2005.

In many ways the tape is typical of the years when video was an exciting new art form, ripe for cheap experimentation, as well as a novel way to document another relatively new medium, performance art. The tapeâ€™s first half shows Mr. von Haselberg playing around with technology as he mugs behind a magnifying lens that grotesquely enlarges and distorts his features.

In the second half Mr. von Haselberg and the other Kipper Kid, Brian Routh, send up macho camaraderie by grunting and singing in cockney-accented gibberish while roughing each other up, urinating in tandem and stripping to the buff.

It also seems typical that until last summer Mr. von Haselberg (who later became a commodities broker and married Bette Midler) had forgotten the tapeâ€™s existence. Back then, as he noted, most artists werenâ€™t too careful about keeping track of their video output.

â€œI donâ€™t know if people were less obsessed by documenting, or if they were taking video less seriously,â€ he said in a telephone interview from his studio in Harlem. Many of the videos in the Long Beach archives, he added, were most likely â€œdone on a lark.â€

Today, however, the Getty is treating that archive, larks and all, with the seriousness that befits a significant slice of art history. Though the research institute has been slowly building its video holdings since it opened in 1982, the Long Beach acquisition suddenly transformed its collection into one of the worldâ€™s largest.